BOSTON (December 2, 2013) — Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have received a generous gift from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation to advance an interdisciplinary model of research to address pressing health and biomedical problems. The funding will support research, led by Charlotte Kuperwasser, in the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences at Tufts.

“We are honored to receive this generous gift from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation. This funding will foster scientific innovation through interdisciplinary research and enrich the faculty and student experience at Tufts through a collaborative approach to learning, research, and discovery,” said Harris Berman, M.D., dean of Tufts University School of Medicine and professor in the department of public health and community medicine.

Under the direction of Charlotte Kuperwasser, Ph.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School, whose research focuses on breast cancer, the gift from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation supports research that bridges the work of laboratories in the life sciences, physical, and engineering sciences. The funding may be used to support postdoctoral researchers using an interdisciplinary research approach; a working group of Boston-area researchers drawing on their strengths in physical, quantitative, engineering, and biological sciences; and a symposium designed to foster collaboration among researchers in different scientific fields.

“Our Foundation has sought out the vanguards in the convergence of biomedical, physical, and engineering sciences and provided funding of programs at eleven Universities in the US, the University of Cambridge in the UK, and Tel Aviv University in Israel. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences now join that effort. The Foundation embraces the leadership of Charlotte Kuperwasser to further expand her fundamental discoveries on the molecular biology of breast cancer by establishing convergent research programs with mathematicians, physicists, engineers and computational scientists,” stated Raymond Sackler, MD.

“Collaborating with scientists across different fields leverages our strengths and enhances the outcomes of biomedical science research. I am grateful that this funding will support these collaborative and potentially transformative research efforts, which we hope will help address major health challenges, such as cancer,” said Charlotte Kuperwasser, Ph.D., director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences; associate professor in the department of developmental, molecular and chemical biology at TUSM; a member of the genetics and cell, molecular & developmental biology program faculties at the Sackler School; and a principal investigator at the Molecular Oncology Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center.

Kuperwasser’s work focuses on understanding the various aspects of breast cancer development. She studies the mechanisms that cause breast cancer, from the early stages of promotion to the later stages of invasion and multiplication. Her recent work includes discovering the cellular origin of a rare form of breast cancer. By understanding more about breast cancer development, Kuperwasser hopes to contribute to developing new therapies.

Raymond R. Sackleris a psychiatrist, entrepreneur and international philanthropist. With brothers Arthur and Mortimer Sackler, he endowed Tufts University’s Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences to support biomedical research and education that spans bench-to-bedside innovation. Dr. Sackler is an Officier dans L’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur (France); Honorary Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire; and Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau (the Netherlands). In 2013, he received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Tufts University. His wife Beverly is an Honorary Member at Christ’s College and at Magdalene College, as well as an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, all of University of Cambridge. The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation’s funding of science, around the world, fosters collaborative and interdisciplinary research that aims to improve health for all people.

About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences

Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical education and advanced research. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, biomedical sciences, special combined degree programs in business, health management, public health, and international relations, as well as basic and clinical research at the cellular and molecular level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical science.

Tufts University

Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical education and advanced research. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, biomedical sciences, special combined degree programs in business, health management, public health, bioengineering and international relations, as well as basic and clinical research at the cellular and molecular level.